He looked out of his city. He looked past the houses, where his citizens lived in hope. Past the church spires, where they gathered to renew their faith. Past the walls, where innumerable soldiers waited, ready to defend against the heathens who assaulted his beautiful city. Past the now barren and destroyed wastelands that stretched for a mile to the south. To the glistening white line that was all he could see of the University staging post. Or, as the heretics were starting to call themselves, 'La Familia'. La Familia del Draconii, in full. It seemed that the Familia was headed by a council of nine, each taking a colour of the rainbow as their title, plus black and white. Each colour took control of a specific field of science, with white being in command, and black being their second, in charge of 'intelligence'.But all that was immaterial. All he needed to know was that Sister Miriam had called down the Righteous Fury of God on these non-beleivers, and that he was to deliver it to those that were outside this city.

Unfortunately, thought Governer Isaac Cain, they had not foreseen Provost Dar'El's intuitive use of the teleportation system that he had devised. After having so recently crushed Chairman Yang on the eastern continent, they had thought that Dar'El would have mere garrison forces in Lab Three, and Education Labs, both of which were on Mount Planet, to the far southwest of them. When a scout party went down there, in the vanguard of a small strike team, they had found both bases to be literally crawling with mindworms. And, as if that were not bad enough, Provost's new Floating Fortresses had started coming through.Huge, antigrav, mobile death platforms, they were. Fortunately, they were too expensive to deploy in great numbers, but the few he had seen were only defeated with heavy casualties , and even then, as the ship fell to the ground, the crew had simply disappeared in a flash of light, apparently to appear on a brand new Fortress, if the rumours were true.But back to Lab Three. Provost had sent his forces north, and west, along the peninsula, capturing the old Gaian bases along the way. That is where they should have been stopped. But, if reports were accurate, both shore bases had been captured by maritime probe teams, and the inland one had been taken by some sort of airborne variant. Miriam had seen this cowardly tactic, and had quickly taken steps to prevent it from repeating, but nevertheless, the University advance did not slow until it reached the Freshwater Sea.It was there that the Last Rose of Summer had held for long enough for Miriam to send in her Templars. It was too late for Last Rose, unfortunately, but their sacrifice enabled other cities to build their defense.It was unfortunate, also, that Provost had captured Yang's stockpile of conventional missiles. The skies rained fire over the old Gaian block on the west side of the Sea, and the University immediately gave those bases back to the crazy, tree hugging Deidre. Just as they had given the Spartans their bases on the eastern continent, those that Chairman Yang had taken from them centuries ago, but still millennia after the glorious Crusaders had forced the Gaians out of their wretched hovels.I still believe to this day that he and those two filthy 'leaders' had something between them. Why else would he give them safe shelter, and land enough for their followers, on his own isle? Why else would he then defend those lands from the armies of the just and the righteous?After he had given the Gaians back their original settlements, that was when University forces first sighted New Jerusalem. Yes we had more bases further up Pholus Ridge, towards the uncharted north, but they suffered heavily from mind worm attacks, and were soon put to the torch by University aerial units. But it was New Jerusalem that they coveted. Without it, soon all Beleiving resistance would crumble. It is the lighthouse for our beacon of faith that is Miriam. Fortunately, the University troops that were allowed the grace of seeing the Holy City, were not allowed to live. The ferocity of the counter attack seemed to stun Provost and his forces. They immediately fell back to their ill gotten bases on our continent, and began shoring up their defences. So, we were left, safe enough, for two whole years. An uneasy peace, and one that was broken on Christmas Day.

Of all the blasphemies, that they attacked on one of the holiest days of the year surely takes the cake. As soldiers were settling down to meals, and guards were relaxing with warm flasks, in came the first wave. Dozens of light attack choppers. Fortunately, only the perimeter guard suffered losses fighting them off, and then we were warned. The next wave was needlejets, choppers, speeders, gravtanks, infantry. In fact, every unit configuration that had been rendered obsolete (by their standards). In the midst of this battle, orbital drop shock troopers started landing IN the city. And, as if that wasn't bad enough, probe teams started siphoning off our money, cutting off power, sabotaging production facilities. They even hacked the datalinks to change some major infosites. Almost caused a riot, that did.

Somehow, we withstood. We were a bastion of light, against the encroaching white tinted darkness, and we would not fall. There was no force on Planet that could shift Sister, and so neither would it shift us.

That next week, the constant attacks stopped. The smoke of gunfire, and burning vehicles, cleared for long enough to allow us to see, for the first time, the prefab firebase that they had constructed only a mile and a half away. Back then, we still had artillery. But the shells were ineffective. They struck something called a 'Tachyon field', long before they hit the base, and were dissipated harmlessly.

Shortly after, we learned that they had constructed a magtube net from Lab Three, all the way through Last Rose and to this firebase. That meant units could teleport anywhere along the entire south coast of the continent, and be here within a matter of minutes.Soon, the effects of this came through. Our remaining scouts reported vastly increased numbers of mind worms, shortly before we lost contact with them. One of our scouts even reported seeing castles in the sky. It was then that we discovered that al of the oceanic citadels had fallen silent, and that all believing resistance now centered around us and New Jerusalem. That was okay. The hammer of God is slow in the falling, but mighty in its wrath.It was also now that we started receiving reinforcements from other Beleiving settlements. Some were from displaced villages, and barely knew how to hold a gun. Others, were from fallen citadels. Even Sister, in her divine wisdom, saw fit to send us fully half of her remaining Templars.

And so we come today. Much skirmishing has been done between now and then, but we have held. The ground boiled with worms, but we held firm. The sky filled with Locusts, but we did not sway from our path. And though they have sent even their mighty Fortresses, we have not faltered. For we Believe, and that shall see us through.

And thus did Governer Isaac Beleive, though the ground boiled with worms, and the sky filled with Locusts, and even the mighty Fortresses darkened the horizon. He did believe as his mighty fleets of airships were cut down in swarms. For he only saw the sinking of defeated fortresses. He did believe as his walls were swarmed with horrific mind worms. For he saw only those worms which did not get behind the promethium flames. And he did believe, even as his men were killed, fleeing from their foes towards the other side of the city. For he only saw those Locusts that died on the collapsing electric shields of his soldiers. He did believe, even as the worms broke down his chamber doors, the great, vaulted ceilings were lost beneath a cloud of locusts, and a Fortress landed outside, disgorging a commander, who strode forward demanding his surrender. He believed, even as he drew his pistol. He believed, even as the worms surged forward, and the clouds of locusts descended. He believed, as he was crushed by a wave of biting insects. He believed, even as they ate through his eyes and into his brain. And he most definitely Beleived, even as he died, with only the smile of a man destined for Paradise on hi s lips.

Several miles to the northwest. Sister Miriam felt something change. Even in her great Cathedral, she could feel something, jarring deep within her. Something had challenged her belief. And that something was winning.

A/N: This is the tale of what happened when I decided to isolate myself in game, and dedicate myself to research. I quite commonly ally myself with Spartans (Total war!!!) and Gaians ( Bio-friendliness). I eradicated the Peacekeepers, who dared to start on the central continent with me. I then took it over, and researched myself back into the space age. At which point, Yang and Miriam declare war on my allies, separately (Yang vs Santiago, Miriam vs Deidre). My allies get eradicated, so I let them have the bottom-most parts of my island. I then negotiate peace between everyone several times (including, interestingly, Yang and Miriam.) Then Miriam attempts to destroy the Gaians. I decide there is no way I am having a believing base on University island, and eradicate her invasion force. She declares war on me, and then Yang launches a surprise attack. Because I am the only friend of planet, I capture every mindworm that Planet sends my way. So, If I probe steal a high pollution base, I get a constant supply of worms. I then teleport them to wherever they need to go. But, I have to wonder, why did they declare war on me in the first place? I was the peace broker! It was, literally, stop fighting, or I will kill you. So they then decide to attack me. Before the war, I had highest tech and pop (even though I had less bases than either of them) And I was most powerful overall. By the half way through, I had highest everything (although I confess to stealing most the money from Miriam and Yang). And then, near the end, their alliance actually broke down! Yes, they were reduced to squabbling over a group of four/five bases, out in the middle of the sea, as far away from me as they could get.

Anyway, this was written because I felt that, as last stands go, the siege of Godwinson's Hope was brilliant. They took over four hundred turns for me to take. After that, New Jerusalem only took twenty. They were out-manned, outgunned, outmanoeuvred, and still they fought to the last. I also found it amusing that of the five bases of hers that I found difficult to take, the hardest by far was one called Godwinson's Hope, and it stopped me from taking New Jerusalem for quite some time.

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